Methodologies and Research Phases

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Key informant interview was held to cross check the answers given by the respondents. Village health workers, community leaders, schoolteachers and others formed this part of data collection method. The key informant interview followed immediately after the administration of questionnaire. Before the actual data collection, the data collection tools and methods were tested in one randomly selected village from Dodoma Rural district, where the FGM is being practiced. Three people who have attained at least form four education level from the entire district were recruited in order to facilitate the data collection activities to explore information that probably were to be hidden by the respondents.

3.5 Data analysis

The SPSS computer software programme was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used in the data analysis. In the descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages were computed. For Likert scale analytical approach, the analysis was done as follows: In the assumption that every respondent scored 5 in each statement, from the score, the respondents would have a total score of 100, which is 5 x 20 = 100. In case, a respondent scored 3 for each statement, computation would have been 3 x 20 = 60, which is to be regarded as neutral/undecided category of score. Lastly, when a respondent scored 1 for each statement, the calculation would have been 1 x 20 = 20, which is the minimum score. There was also an assumption that half of the maximum score 100, which is 50 had to be a starting point of a neutral category. Then the attitudes assessment among the respondents was done as: between 20 and 49 cores category was regarded to be assessed as negative, while between 50 and 60 scores category was considered to be under neutral, and between 61 and 100 scores category was meant to be having positive attitude.